Friday, July 19, 2013

Finding high-quality hamburger meat at the market is a lot
easier than it used to be, but the same cannot be said for the buns. They’re
never the right dimensions for a decent sized patty; and they’re either made
from some insipid white sponge with seventy-three ingredients, or from
high-fiber, whole grains, which in many ways is even worse.

A proper bun should be nothing more than a light, buttery,
airy delivery system for getting a hot, juicy hamburger into your mouth. Oats,
spelt, and flax seeds have no business getting anywhere near this type of operation. That's what turkey sandwiches are for.

Above and beyond taste and texture, the bun needs to be the
right diameter to fit a classic half-pound burger, and should be twice as thick
as the patty. I guess you could drive all over town looking for these magic
buns, but it would be a lot easier just to make them yourself.

They do take few hours, but most of that is rise time, and
when you see and taste the results, I’m sure you’ll agree it was well worth the
investment. By the way, don’t worry if your buns are slightly irregular in
size. We’ll assume you’ll form your burgers with the same precision, so in the
end they should match perfectly. I hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Editorial Note: Today’s title will only make sense if you watch the video, and are familiar with Sir Mix-A-Lot’s "Baby Got Back."

I was just thinking I should try making my own hamburger buns! I will definitely be trying this, but I did have a question about freezing. I generally only ever need 2 buns at a time so at what step could i freeze these? Would it work to freeze them after they have been shaped and before any egg wash is applied? I don't really like the idea of freezing already baked breads but maybe I'm wrong.

@Jennifer & Chef John:I've been freezing quite some of Chef Johns doughs, and I usually freeze some before the last rising. So here, After dividing them, I'd (and will) freeze half of them, because my boyfriend and me can't eat as much as 8 burgers, but I like to have some dough for fast pizza/burger/etc making in hand.

Hope that will work and that it helps!

Chef John, I've been waiting so long! It always feels a little bad to buy premade burger buns, and calling the burger "homemade" ;( So I'm really, really happy and I'll be making these today! Thank you so much, you have transformed me from a "I can throw a package of instant sauce and noodles in some water" to "yesss, my friends, come over I'll cook XYZ and it will be AWESOME!"

As to freezing dough...I have frozen pizza and foccacia dough and it survives for a month or so in good shape. If you portion the dough into storage bags you can pull out just what you need. Make sure you let the dough come up to room temperature before you start working with it so the yeast can wake up.

I make the dough in my bread machine on the dough setting and then take the dough and shape them into buns, freeze them at that point, before the second rise. You can wrap them in waxed paper and place in a freezer bag.

This looks fantastic, plan to make these tomorrow. Quick question though, your posts used to have a "complete recipe" link with printable instructions... Are you not doing these anymore or am I simply missing where they're at in the newer posts?

This looks fantastic, plan to make these tomorrow. Quick question though, your posts used to have a "complete recipe" link with printable instructions... Are you not doing these anymore or am I simply missing where they're at in the newer posts?

These look great, looking forward to trying tomorrow. Quick question, your posts used to have "complete recipe" links where there were printable directions. Are you not doing these anymore or am I simply missing where they're at in the newer posts?

To answer Jennifer, I freeze raw pizza dough all the time, but I also freeze baked hamburger buns with great success. I would definitely bake all eight buns and then freeze six rather than freeze the raw dough. That way, making a burger involves only thawing rather than thawing and baking.

I freeze already baked bread all the time. It is edible just thawed, but fabulous toasted (since it does get a tad bit drier when you freeze it). Since toasted buns are nice for burgers, I would personally go with freezing the baked buns and toasting them to thaw ;) YMMV

I love that you gave the weight of the flour,it has improvement my baking significantly. I make a similar roll, but I always learn something from you. I was not shaping my rolls correctly so thank you again for all you do.

Hi Chef John. Been a fan for a while. These buns look great! I was wondering whether you use the same camera for video and stills and which one it is. I am looking to get into photography and have always loved the image quality on your site.

Hello Chef, I need your help! I'm going to make these rolls tonight to make fish(jack)sanwiches with remoulade sauce (tartar) but can't seem to find the sauce on the sight. I know it's just mayo,relish,lemon,worch. and maybe capers, etc. but...any other ideas to make it extra special or direct me to that recipe. I do have some dill pesto to put in it. Thanks in advance chef!

Oh me, oh my! Just made these and talk about soft! Mine were huge, perfect, soft. Will have to make more for pulled pork this week! One secret that I picked up along the way, place your dough on a LIGHTLY floured towel, cut to size,place dough on pan, and flip the floured towel on it (flour side down). No mess to clean up. I will use that towel a couple of times before washing. Sooo easy and no mess. May try a 1/2 c. whole wheat on the next try just for fun! Keep um' comin'!!

I can confirm that this works perfectly fine for hot dog buns and sandwich bread. I make about the same recipe, from foodwishes dinner rolls, except I use just the egg yolk. I came up with the yolk idea coz I only wanted 4 rolls.Use milk instead of water for soft white loaf of bread.And I don't have mixer, I use my hands. That's home cooking.

I baked these buns on the same night I was cooking my burgers - a mistake, as it turns out. These are not very hardy when straight out of the oven and even after toasting, they led to a mushy, lackluster burger. However, the next day we tried again and after pan frying them 'till their insides were golden, everything turned out splendidly. 8D They're buttery and slightly sweet and look like they're from a commercial when you pull them from the oven.Just don't forget to let them cool. ^^;

I live in Holland, and over here we use grams instead of cups and spoons... So I'm a bit confused. How much is a cup in grams? Could you help me out here? I would love to try your recipe, the buns look very tasty! Thank you very much in advance!

Hi John, I was wondering what substitute I could use for the egg in both the dough and the topping, since I am vegan. I guess the beautiful brown color comes from the egg? I would use "No Egg" for the dough. Thanks for your help. Magdalena

Perfect texture, Chef John! Thank you for the recipe! The only thing I'd do different the next time is one extra Tbsp. sugar, for my husband's desire for sweetness. But I still can't get over how light and fluffy these are!

I divided the dough in half and shaped one half into 4 hamburger buns, then divided the other half into 6 pieces for hot dog buns. Topped some off with poppy seeds and they were gorgeous inside and out.

Chef John thank you for the wonderful videos and your wondreful recipes! May I ask you something? I made those burger buns and they taste so good!!! BUT.. (yes..there's a "but") they didnt came out inflated...and my dough was very stiff... :(

Maybe the problem is that I live in Europe and "converted" us units to European?.. :( Can I find the dosages for Europe? :(

I read a comment about freezing the buns, if u want to keep them from drying out place them on a cookie sheet I line mine with unbleached parchment paper and pop them into the freeze as is to freeze before placing in the ziplock. Then take them out the night before place in fridge and let come to temp. They r prefect when toasted lightly and topped accordingly (: I do this with pancakes, breads, muffins, broccoli, anything really.

Have an unhealthy idea for this recipe. In fact I did do it and it turned out super great. You can substitute butter with equal amount of the remained fat/oil from cooking some good quality beacon in its own fat. This way you can have some beacon for breakfast then a good burger in beacon flavored buns for lunch/dinner :)

Got an unhealthy idea. Substitute the butter with the remained fat from cooking some good quality beacons. This way you can have a perfect day starting with beacon for breakfast and then some awesome burgers later :)

This recipe is AWESOME. I messed up a few parts (I used a packet of instant yeast, and the dough rose super-fast, so I did a triple-rise; I didn't properly shape the buns). However, they turned out AMAZING. As dinner rolls, but still, I'm so happy. Thank you so much for this recipe, and for your easy-to-follow videos.

I looooovvvveeee your recipes. Buuut, I have one issue. As a european it's very hard to get around with those cup mesurements. Would you mind additionally writing the measurements in the metric system?

Recipe called for 3 and 1/2 cups of flour total, but I found this to be too much flour! My dough was not sticky at all. I made a second batch using only 3 cups flour total, and it came out much better and similar to the texture I seen in the video. Thanks!

I absolutely love this recipe!! It's absolutely wonderful! I really wanted to make my own hamburgers with hamburger buns too and this recipe was perfect! Except that I didn't have sesame seeds so I didn't make hamburger buns. I merely made buns! But still, awesome!!

Wowzers chef John! Ive just pulled them out of my oven and they are the most amazing burger buns ive ever seen! Just had to tear off an edge and try. So soft and yummy. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I use so many recipes off your site now, these are another regular ;-)

Great recipe chef! I use this recipe well.....like every time I need burger buns. It wasn't until today that I tried doing it with whole wheat flour, following your advice and techniques, they turned out awesome! PS. Every time I shape my buns, lol, I find myself singing "I like big buns and I cannot lie!" Oh ya....and I put oats on top not sesame and it was more like 2:1 whole wheat to white flour. Thank you chef for this awesome recipe! MUAH!

Thanks for these great videos. You really inspire us with cooking ideas. i have one issue regarding the baking stage at very end. when i put them in the oven the will not rise though my dough just looks like yours. can you please advice when baking in 375F in the oven do i have to put on the bottom first for a few mins or up and bottom together.

Hello chef John, thank for the wonderful recipe, i made this burger twice and those come out perfect, i just use hand to kneading the dough in about 10 minutes, now i can make the buns every time, i don't made any changes just according the recipe, this is really great recipe ever for the burger bun.

Hello chef John, thank for the wonderful recipe, i made this burger twice and those come out perfect, i just use hand to kneading the dough in about 10 minutes, now i can make the buns every time, i don't made any changes just according the recipe, this is really great recipe ever for the burger bun.